


it's only skin and therefore so breakable

by lukasagitta



Series: wherever is your heart [3]
Category: Avengers Academy (Video Game)
Genre: (very mild and only on Howard's part), F/F, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2018-07-15 00:03:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7196975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lukasagitta/pseuds/lukasagitta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jan has hearts to draw, Tony has super important science to do, and T'Challa just wants to hold his hand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> For those unfamiliar with the Avengers Academy mobile game: AvAc is a college AU in which everyone is still a hero/villain. During the Civil War event, Tony and Steve are competing to determine which of them has the best strategy for taking down Hydra. (It's pretty silly.)
> 
> Context for this specific story: Jan joined Team Cap during Civil War, despite being Tony's best friend, because Cap offered training that she needed. The two of them angsted about it for a while, but Jan decided they could resolve it by going rock-climbing together at the Wakanda embassy. Meanwhile, T'Challa joined Team Tony and played a lot of DDR. 
> 
> Check out [this album](http://imgur.com/a/RHFs8) if you want to see why I fell in love with this ship.
> 
> The cardboard box is a reference to [this](http://imgur.com/Us4uki4).
> 
> In my headcanon for Avengers Academy, Tony has a prosthetic hand. Except when he's [in his beach attire](http://imgur.com/umorjEu), he wears the [armor's full arm](http://imgur.com/h6qHqZW).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jan has hearts to draw, Tony has super important science to do, and T'Challa just wants to hold his hand.

“Hah! I win!” Tony pulled himself up over the edge. When he glanced down over his shoulder, he was greeted with Jan’s heavy scowl.

“I had the trickier rocks,” Jan insisted. Her knuckles went white as she tightened her grip on one of the rocks.

“Suuuure, Jan,” Tony said, slowly turning himself around to face the rest of the campus. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.” He swung his legs as he settled onto the top of the embassy’s mountain, tapping the rocks with the back of his heel.

Jan huffed and hawed—a bit too dramatically, in his grandstanding opinion—until she finally joined him at the top. Heaving a sigh, she fell back against the ground and spread her arms. Despite all her panting, she still only smelled like her cinnamon perfume.

For a while, all that could be heard was the occasional chirp of the red bird flying overhead, Tony’s heels tapping the rocks, and Jan’s breathing. Tony watched the clouds float by, searching for shapes and patterns in them.

Jan’s tired voice jarred him from his daydreaming.

“If this convinces you that we’re still best friends forever, then yeah, it does help me sleep.”

Tony turned his head and frowned at Jan. When he tried to search her gaze, he found that she’d covered her eyes with one hand. “You—”

Jan smiled. “You know I’m Team Tony where it counts, right?”

“I—yeah,” Tony said, casting her a guilty expression, even if she couldn’t see it. “Sorry for being so…” _Sensitive_. “I dunno, the whole thing’s pretty ridiculous, isn’t it?”

“ _Completely_.” Jan drew her hand away from her face, revealing eyes glimmering with amusement. “You and Steve are already working together again.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna help him with Bucky. We’re…better as a team, anyway.”

Jan sat up to roll her eyes at him. “Men’s egos are _exhausting_ ,” she muttered. Her face lit up again as her gaze wandered towards the quad. “Ooooo, I’m gonna go draw hearts on Nat’s new box!” She flashed a smile as she shrank down, wings fluttering in the breeze.

“I’ll see you later tonight, Tony,” she said. Her tiny hand patted his head before she flew off to the quad.  

Tony just laughed and shook his head. Ever since Nat had decided that cardboard box made her virtually invisible, Jan had taken to decorating it at every opportunity, forcing Nat to keep replacing it. Tony had to wonder what she did with the desecrated ones…

After he was done musing about Jan and Nat’s relationship, Tony looked to the sky again. Maybe it was just because he was at the Wakandan embassy, but Tony kept seeing _cats_ everywhere. Then again, if it was just that, he would’ve expected to see some snakes and birds too.   

“Tony, it is good to see you.”

Tony turned towards T’Challa just as he made a bounding leap from the trees. It might have just been the light, but T’Challa’s hair looked _really_ nice today.

“Hey, fancy meeting _you_ here,” Tony teased, making a pawing motion with his unarmored hand. T’Challa raised an eyebrow. “Thanks for letting us go rock climbing at your embassy—I won, by the way.”

It had been his idea to turn it into a competition, naturally.

“I wish I had been here to witness your victory,” T’Challa said smoothly as he sat down beside his guest. Unlike Tony, he kept his legs still as they hung over the edge. “It seems I am inclined to root for the underdog.”

“You were rooting for me?” Tony asked, taken aback by the enthusiasm he heard in his own voice. T’Challa looked at him expectantly, and Tony’s face fell. “ _Hey_ , I’m not the underdog.” 

“In this case, you are,” T’Challa said, definitely abusing the forceful aspect of his voice. “The Wasp tells me her grip is legendary, for all the texting she does.”

Tony sighed. “She might’ve gone easy on me, since…”

T’Challa watched him closely, with neither approval nor condemnation. When the silence became suffocating, Tony gestured towards Cap’s training area.

“Did the two of you resolve your miscommunication issue?” T’Challa asked.

“It wasn’t a miscommunication issue so much as…” _Stark men are—_ Tony shook his head. “We fixed it, yeah. Besides, the teams don’t really matter anymore.” He grinned at the prince. “So I guess it’ll stay our little secret that it was Team T’Challa all along.”

T’Challa smiled. “I would like it best that way,” he said. “It is…entertaining, to watch your team captain antics.”

Tony beamed shamelessly and leaned closer to the prince. “Plus, the arcade is pretty cool, right?”

“Certainly. I quite enjoyed the DDR game, and your virtual reality system is almost perfectly immersive.”

“If you want, I could put in some of your favorite songs on DDR.” Tony shimmied—or at least, attempted to, given his position. “Y’know, the danceable ones.”

T’Challa’s gaze flickered between Tony and the horizon. “I will…consider that.”

“We should play versus mode sometime—you’ll win, obviously.”

“Obviously.” T’Challa smirked. “But I am confident that you will be an engaging opponent.”

“Well, I’ll at least try to—”

Tony’s unarmored fingers brushed against the warmth of T’Challa’s as he leaned in even closer. It felt _really nice_ , maybe even _cozy_ , but as soon as he registered what he was doing, Tony pulled his hand back as if it had been burnt.

“Uh, sorry,” Tony mumbled, using the old look-right-over-their-head trick. “Anyway, I’d…uh…” His fingers curled into fists as he pulled them to his sides.

T’Challa’s gaze dropped to the empty space between their hands, looking almost curious with the way his lips parted.

“I’d…try to…get an A at least,” Tony said. His face felt hot with embarrassment. Knowing his luck, his ears were beet red too.

“You did not offend me, Tony,” T’Challa insisted quietly, in a voice that sounded borrowed. When Tony dared to look up again, T’Challa was staring at him. He slid his hand closer to Tony’s, inch by inch. “I would not refuse your hand if you offered it again.”

Tony furrowed his brows. Maybe—maybe in Wakanda, this kind of thing was okay. But T’Challa couldn’t possibly be interested— No, it was probably a cultural thing. Maybe hand-holding didn’t have the same romantic connotations over there or something.

That had to be it. It was the most reasonable explanation.

“That’s—good,” Tony said. The words felt heavy and foreign on his tongue. “I think—I think I just had an idea. For science stuff. You know how it is. Soooobyeseeyoulater.”

Before T’Challa could say anything else, Tony scrambled to climb back down the rocks.

It wasn’t his smoothest exit, but at least he didn’t fall on the way down.


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony is totally not thinking about the hand-holding incident, and neither is T'Challa. Not even a little bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided that this part of the series would make sense as part 2 of this entry rather than a separate one as I'd originally planned, so, here you go!
> 
> Here's the reference to [Tony's eyebrows](http://imgur.com/PyEbO9q) and an example of one of [Bucky's poetic disasters](http://imgur.com/Ezfj1mN).
> 
> I'm using MCU canon for the Wakandan language, which means that he speaks Xhosa, as demonstrated [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trq_gIe1v04).

“— _thony_? Are you alright? _Tony_?”

Normally, a voice that soothing would only draw Tony into a deeper sleep, but there was something _wrong_ about it that pulled him out of his slumber instead.

Tony forced his eyes open and took in his surroundings. Judging by the tools right in front of his face, he’d fallen asleep at his workbench again. He groaned.

“ _Tony_.”

The insistent voice was accompanied by a hand shaking his shoulder. Tony sat up slowly and dragged his eyes towards the source of all this ruckus.

“Oh—T’Challa!” he squeaked, offering a nervous smile. What a great way to start the—morning, night, whatever. Tony raked his fingers through his hair, hoping it didn’t look too terrible. Judging by the texture, he’d gotten motor oil in it again. Not that it _mattered_ , since that whole hand-holding incident was completely platonic and only weird because Tony made it weird. “Er, what are you… I mean…hi?”

“I—” T’Challa took a step back and frowned. With the way he kept shifting his weight, Tony had the impression that the prince was uneasy about something. If someone had attacked the Academy, T’Challa would be more outright alarmed, which ruled out the need to rush into the suit at least.

“Ms. Potts let me in,” T’Challa explained. “I had not seen you since your rock climbing competition, and I feared that I had…” His frown deepened. “Regardless, when I arrived, you appeared to have fainted.” He stepped forward and rested his hand on the armrest of Tony’s chair. “Are you quite alright?” 

Tony ducked his head as he rubbed his eyes. _Fainted_ —that was one way of putting it. “I’m fine—I just fell asleep,” he assured the prince. The yawn was unplanned. “Happens like, _all_ the time.” Hence the need for Dummy to wield a fire extinguisher.   

T’Challa arched a brow. “I am certain that your bed is much more comfortable than this chair.”

“I don’t always make it that far,” Tony admitted, waving a hand dismissively. “Got science to do. “Y’know, like I uh. Like I said. Before.” Tony cringed at the sound of his own voice.

“I see.” T’Challa scanned the lab with a level of scrutiny that he usually only reserved for battle. Tony only knew this because he often stopped to watch T’Challa spar in the quad up until a few days ago.   

“Perhaps you should endeavor to reach your cot next time,” T’Challa suggested. That scrutiny redirected itself towards Tony, who could only imagine the dark circles under his eyes at the moment. On second thought, Tony’s looks were a lost cause right now, except maybe his eyebrows.

“I’m fine,” Tony mumbled. This conversation really required coffee for him to be suitably alert. “Just pulling my weight, is all.”

T’Challa’s eyes widened. “You do not think…” He shook his head. “Tony, you do a great deal for the Academy.”

“Whoooa, look, it’s—” Tony’s gaze flickered over to one of his computers. Bingo. “Oh, I _think_ I finished the DDR songs last…whenever. JARVIS?”

“Indeed, sir, you did,” JARVIS replied. “You also completed a new set of levels for the VR system.”

“Right!” Tony clapped his hands together. “I found some cool Wakandan music online. I mean, a lot of it was way too sophisticated for DDR, but there were some that fit. I _really_ like…well, actually, I can’t pronounce it—still working on the clicking thing—but they were super cool. They looked like some of your bodyguards but obviously weren’t because, duh. And I saw that you’d gotten through all the levels I had programmed for the VR game, so I made a few new ones. Knowing _you_ , you’ll blow right through them, but…um… Yeah.”

Watching T’Challa’s frown turn into a smile felt like opening one of Jan’s elaborately-wrapped presents on Christmas—which only reminded Tony that he _really_ needed coffee because even Bucky would turn his nose up at that line.

“Thank you, Tony,” T’Challa said. All the tension he’d been holding in his shoulders and his face slipped away as he spoke, replaced with bright eyes and a grin. “However, there’s just one more thing I’d like…” Tony tilted his head as he tried to summon a response, but T’Challa leaned down to press a finger against his lips before he could vocalize it.

“You mentioned, before, that you wanted to compete with me in DDR,” T’Challa said, searching Tony’s gaze. “Perhaps after you get some proper rest, we can play the versus mode together?” He pulled his finger away from Tony’s lips and smiled hesitantly. “And I can assist you in pronouncing the titles, if you’d like.”

“Yes!” Tony cleared his throat. “I mean, yes. I’ll…swing by the embassy a bit later.”  

“I look forward to your defeat.”

Oddly enough, so did Tony.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback, especially comments, is much appreciated! I already have a lot planned for this series, but feel free to send me prompts on [my tumblr](http://lukasagitta.tumblr.com/).
> 
> I apologize for the delay in updating this; it's mostly because I'm nervous to be posting fanfiction again after all this time. 
> 
> Up next is Brian Falsworth's admission to the Academy, from the British Invasion event!

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback, especially comments, is much appreciated! I already have a lot planned for this series, but feel free to send me prompts on [my tumblr](http://lukasagitta.tumblr.com/).
> 
>  **I'd like your opinions on something.** Should T'Challa find out how Tony lost his hand before or after they start dating? You can leave a comment here or send me an ask on tumblr.


End file.
